This invention relates to polyethylene castings and more particularily to a composite of high density polyethylene embedded in low density polyethylene and the method of making such castings.
Polyethylene has become an important commercial product. It is produced from ethylene monomer, a gas derived from natural gas or from the cracking of crude oil. A high pressure reaction with trace amounts of oxygen as a catalyst produces "high pressure" or "low density" polyethylene. This material is also known as "conventional" polyethylene.
Other polyethylene polymers, known as "low pressure" or "high density" polyethylene, are well known in the art. These ethylene polymers have very different properties from the low density polyethylene, and are prepared by reacting ethylene monomer in the presence of a metallic oxide catalyst. Polymers so produced may be linear, or may contain controlled amounts of branching. Nominal densities of high density polyethylene are from 0.939 to 0.965 gram per cc.
The American Society for Testing and Materials types polyethylene as follows: Type 1 is low density polyethylene having a mass per unit volume ranging from 0.910 to 0.925 gram per cc; Type 2 is medium density with a density ranging from 0.926 to 0.940 gram per cc; and Type 3 is high density polyethylene with a density ranging from 0.941 to 0.960 gram per cc.
High density polyethylene having a weight average molecular weight of above 1.5 million, as determined by viscosity measurements, is called ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene. Essentially linear in structure, it has some properties superior to those of linear high density polyethylene of lower molecular weight.
A number of blends of these polyethylenes have been made to achieve particular properties and are well known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,850 teaches a homogeneous blend of two or more polyethylene resins of different molecular weight by forming a melt of the resins, cooling the resins to form a solid, and reducing the solid blend to a finally divided state and remelting. Simularly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,592,881 teaches the preparation of a heat-sealable film prepared by crosslinking an oriented film of a blend of low density and high density polyethylenes for packaging. The latter patent is directed toward providing a heat shrinkable polyethylene film having a broad heat sealing range which is suitable for use on automatic packaging equipment.
Polyethylene is typically used for wire and cable coatings and can be molded by a number of techniques such as thermoforming, rotational molding, injection molding, film extrusion, and blow molding; however, thick castings of polyethylene are difficult to prepare because of shrinkage which either causes the polyethylene to pull away from the walls of the mold during cooling or causes voids in the center of the casting. The present invention is directed toward a process and a composition to make large void-free castings of polyethylene.